Should I?

by The Collapsed Library

On-the-job-training 5 (edited)

Twilight walked out of the "museum" and did a quick scan of the hallway. She discovered that the chapel's ceiling wasn't that far away from her current location and began to walk over. As she kicked the changelings out of the way, she proceeded to direct the guards to where they needed to be for the plan to work. Their plan was a simple one: Twilight would cave the roof in, giving them their entrance along with the element of surprise. The guards would then incapacitate any and all combatants before attempting to assist Twilight with the queen. Brandishing her hoofblasters, Twilight stood and waited to allow everyone to get ready for the drop. Once she was satisfied with their positions, she leapt high into the air and let gravity do the rest. The floor didn't stand a chance, giving way to the thundering roar of collapsing masonry as She and her team fell into the room below.

As Twilight fell she began picking out, and then picking off, targets in order to give the guards a better chance in the coming fight. By the time the last stones settled, her sensors could only pick up 12 enemy combatants, not counting the queen, who were in any form of fighting shape. Smiling, despite knowing that there was no way anyone could see it, she hefted the EM-6 she'd brought down and glanced at the queen. The look of utter disbelief on the bug queen's face was priceless, but Twilight knew that it wouldn't be there for long. Firing a quick glance off towards the squad's leader, she signaled for them to engage.

"Attack!" He shouted, as soon as the words had left his mouth the stallion began firing off spells left and right. Around him his fellow guardsmen engaged the enemy in clashes of hoof-to-hoof combat, as well as aerial and magic duels rivaling those fought centuries ago during the aptly named changeling wars. As the sounds of battle began ringing out behind her, Twilight advanced on the queen who was desperately trying to crawl her way towards the balcony so as to avoid arousing the attention of her pursuer.

As Twilight advanced, the sounds of battle only ever escalating, she began to squeeze the trigger on her EM-6. As she watched the first white lances of death arc towards the changeling, she couldn't help but smirk and say, "going somewhere?"

Suddenly the changeling found bolts of arcane fire flying towards her. Sprinting as fast as she could, the bug tried and failed to outrun the magical blasts and ended up taking one to the flank and another just under the wing, preventing her escape. As she rolled back up into a fighting stance she began scanning for her foe. Upon noticing the one who'd engaged her, the queen began to backpedal away from the ever approaching suit of barely contained murderous intent.

---

As Twilight advanced on her, now wounded, foe she dropped the cumbersome EM-6 and assumed a combat-ready posture. Time seemed to slow down as she approached the queen. She could feel her resentment for this creature burning inside her, and all too quickly became aware of how close she was to ending the bug's miserable life. In that moment however she didn't care, she just wanted to make her pay for what she'd done, for ruining her brother's wedding and making her friends and family doubt her.

So, what's the plan Twilight? How are we gonna do this? Heart's voice was like a knife, piercing the red haze that had begun to settle over her and allowed her to think rationally.

We take her out, the hard way preferably. But an open surrender would be nice too. Drawing herself up, Twilight continued to advance on her foe, backing the queen out onto the balcony in the process.

"Surrender, your forces inside the castle have been beaten, as have a majority of those outside. If you-" Twilight suddenly had to backpedal as a torrent of green fire erupted towards her. As she drew her hoofblasters the queen began talking.

"YOU DARE TELL ME TO SURRENDER, DO YOU TRULY THINK YOU AND YOUR KIND ARE A MATCH FOR I QUEEN CHRYSALIS!? MY ARMY HAS DECIMATED YOUR FORCES AND EVEN THE GODDESS OF THE SUN HAS FALLEN TO MY MIGHT! WHAT HOPE COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE?" Being forced to backpedal once more by a jet of fire, Twilight adjusted one of her blasters to produce a shield and began to advance, using her other blaster to keep the queen off balance. Once she was within a few feet of her foe she sprinted forward and wrapped her hooves around the queen, never stopping as she sent them both hurtling over the edge of the balcony.

---

When Twilight came to, she was on her back in what appeared to be a crater. Drawing herself out of the pit she found the queen likewise coming to in a collapsed storefront. As both combatants squared off, the changeling queen finally noticed the changelings littering the ground.

"WHAT!?" Chrysalis screamed sprinting towards her fallen army, "What happened to them!?"

Twilight smirked as she beheld the queen's reaction, knowing what she said next would decide how the next few minutes played out.

"I did." As she said it she noticed the queen's back tense up, no doubt preparing for an attack of some sort. Instead what the queen got was a much unexpected offer:

"Surrender Chrysalis, and there will be medics here faster than you can imagine to help your army. We are not monsters who'd leave another to die, and many among my kind believe in second chances. There is no need to fight any more." As she spoke, Twilight watched and waited for Chrysalis' response. She hoped the queen would accept, but anything was possible and so Twilight prepared to deal with whatever came next.

"What would you have me do? Let my people starve?" Upon hearing this Twilight recoiled as if struck, she hadn't thought about the "why" of the invasion at all up 'til now. To suddenly be told that the only other alternative to the events of today involved a race's annihilation... Slowly she lowered her blasters, walking forward and placing a hoof on the queen's shoulder.

"They don't have to," as she said it, Twilight watched the queen's bruised and broken face brighten, "we can offer what assistance we can, we can help you find a better way." Looking at the queen, and subsequently her "army," Twilight noticed they did all appear rather thin by equine standards. Even the queen appeared to be on the scant side, definitely not the imposing figure she'd imagined. Finally noticing the many cracks and dents in the changeling's chitin, Twilight made her another offer: "How about we stop this invasion, we can seek asylum for you and your changelings."

Extending the olive branch? What about what she did to the wedding?

I'll admit there were... better ways she could've gone about it. But her people were starving, and more and more I'm getting the feeling this was an act of pure desperation on her part. She wouldn't have gone to all this trouble if it hadn't been a last ditch effort.

"What will I say to your princesses? 'Oh, sorry for ruining the wedding and nearly enslaving everyone, can you help me?' It'll never work!"

"How about the truth, I know someone who'll back you up."

"Who? Who would ever be willing to talk to me after all this?"

"Twilight Sparkle, that's who..."

Author's Note:

So... I wanted to release this waaaay earlier, but I've been experimenting with a new art program and decided to build a cover for this while I'm at it. This is essentially how far I've got:

So that's where my free time's been going, I just need to finish her and work on a couple of other characters on the underside of the image and then It's done!

side note this is how I originally worded the scene on the balcony (I am so sorry chryssy):

Twilight suddenly had to backpedal as a torrent of green fire erupted towards her. As she drew her hoofblasters the queen began talking.

"Narcissism Narcissism Narcissism Narcissism Narcissism, mememememe I QUEEN CHRYSALIS!? Narcissism Narcissism Narcissism Story of grandeur."

Anyways, if you've read this thing up 'til now "REJOICE!!!" *Thunder cracks* "FOR THE ENDING OF THE ARC COMETH!!! PREPARE THY BUMS!!" I'm sorry to those of you who wanted Chryssy and Twi to duke it out, but this sets up the story rather nicely for some other arcs I wanna do. I actually had the scene on the *ehem* ground floor initially packed with action, but decided it wasn't conducive to a good story. I didn't want Twi to seem way too OOC and over wanted a more 3d character out of this arc. I ended up setting that scene up in case I want to do a "what if..." Concept with this:

Twilight smirked as she beheld the queen's reaction, knowing what she said next would decide how the next few minutes played out.

so if anyone wants the senseless violence I originally intended then just say so. Otherwise I'll see you all later.

also, removed lime bolded text, that was for editing purposes and I forgot to take it out before publishing.

Comments

[BronyPonyMan]

other than you using green bolded font unnecessarily for the queens speaking, this was good.

[The Collapsed Library]

7142812 That was actually so I could differentiate the speakers while proofreading... oops.
The chapter was essentially at 0 words yesterday morning, and by the time I could work on writing it the time was somewhere around late-o-clock. Whenever I do late nights writing binges I color any dialogue other than Twi's (or Heart in her chapters) so I know things make sense dialogue wise to me. I only decided to keep Hearts colored thought text 'cause when they talk to each other there is so little I can do to not confuse one character's ideas with the others. I'll probably end up removing Chryssy's color... Which was totally lime by the way(grumbles about the obvious differences between lime and green). Thanks for the input.

[DarknessLilly]

so far so good. will be watching this story. ^_^

[The Collapsed Library]

7223439 hmmm... I like your thinking gifsec.com/wp-content/uploads/GIF/2014/03/Evil-Laugh-Cat-GIF.gif?gs=a
actually I kinda had plans for the bug... As for the "fuck you, and you, and you" bit that's definitely happening.

[Dragonwaz]

7086007 I don't know if I ever got this reply notified to me but if I never got back to you my profile pic is from the DoubleWBrothers

Here's the link to it.

[AleaJactaEst]

Only one question. Is this a bad ass Twilight story?

[The Collapsed Library]

7767786 I'd like to think of it as a "Twilight does what needs to be done, and if that involves beating a face in then so be it" kinda story. Think of her as a pseudo samurai at this point, although things will definitely change as the story progresses.

[AleaJactaEst]

7768682 Good enough